Ode to Sleep
by CoralReeferMelbourne
Summary: One-shots set years after the events of Sozin's Comet, mainly revolving around Azula's relationships with her mother, brother, and old friend. However, they're not always told through Azula. Canon-complaint up until the comics. There will be some Tyzula but for now a lot of it is speculative. Rating: K-T


This is canon-compliant until the events of the comics. I pretty much reject everything that happened in them. However, I did like some things such as Ursa marrying her childhood sweetheart and them having a daughter together so I will might cherry pick some ideas from time to time.

Azula deserves some sort of redemption arc, and while I may not be the best at writing that journey, I would like to see her and Ursa's relationship explored more, years after the mental institution.

In this timeline, Zuko does not immediately seek out Ursa, instead choosing to focus on restoring balance in the world, Fire Nation, and Azula before opening an emotionally heavy wound. He first reaches out to Ursa when Azula is 18 and moving from the institution back into the Palace. However, he doesn't invite Ursa and her family to visit or live with them until he thinks Azula can handle the impact when she is 21.

I hope to explore Azula's relationships with others years after the events of Sozin's Comet through one-shots. They will mainly focus on Ursa, Ty Lee, and Zuko and will not always be told through Azula or have her be the main character.

The title comes from the twenty one pilots song "Ode to Sleep".

* * *

Walking down the hallways of the Palace always unnerves Ursa, even after a few months of living there again. There's just so much to remember, some of it good, a lot of it bad.

She sees a young Zuko being chased by an even younger Azula, both of them laughing and shouting at one another, big smiles on their faces. She sees the messenger bringing her a scroll that says her nephew was killed at war. She hears Zuko crying because Ozai yelled at him. She gets shivers down her spine thinking about hearing Azula cackle for the first time. She sees Ozai towering over her as she tries to make herself small against a wall.

She thinks about all of the regrets she has as she nears the gardens. Some are big, some are small, but the biggest one probably has to be the 21 year old she sees practicing her firebending forms in the yard.

Azula comes to the gardens every morning at sunrise to practice her firebending. She has always preferred the gardens, even when she was a small child. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was the only place in the entire Palace with noticeable greenery or that it was the perfect place to watch the vibrant orange and red streaks of dawn slowly fade to bright blue. Whatever the reason, she was here every morning.

So Ursa found herself here every morning.

When Ursa first came to watch Azula practice her firebending, it led to a screaming fit and threats of lightning thrown her way. Zuko had eventually heard the commotion and dismissed her from the yard to calm down Azula. Now there's rarely any backlash from her daughter—as long as Ursa stays across the gardens and doesn't speak to her.

As she watches Azula do a few flips, she thinks about how much she has grown. She was just a child when Ursa left and now she is a young woman. She is strong and beautiful (she even reminds Ursa of her own youth) and intelligent and powerful and—and broken. Broken thanks to no small part of her's.

She desperately wants to mend her non-existent relationship with her eldest daughter but she fears that Azula will never give her the chance.

Ursa frowns at the thought.

"What's wrong?"

Ursa looks up to see Ty Lee looking down at her.

She ignores the question.

"Ty Lee," she smiles warmly. "Sit, won't you?"

Ty Lee hesitates but does so, keeping her eyes focused on the Princess.

"How are you this morning, Ty Lee?"

"I'm fine," she replies simply.

"Is breakfast ready?" Ursa tries, expecting the acrobat to take the lead in the conversation, as she usually does with others.

"Nearly," she replies. Ursa knows that's why Ty Lee is here; she's a silent signal for Azula that she should wrap up her morning routine. She sees the pair make brief eye contact before Azula turns away.

Her daughter isn't the only one that Ursa has observed. She cares for Ty Lee—Mai too—as they were both friends of Azula. She's noticed that Ty Lee seems much stronger now and not just physically. She sees that she will stand up to Azula if the Princess says something hurtful, refusing to be pushed around. Which is good, Azula needs someone around who can keep up. And while the acrobat maintains a certain pluckiness to her, she no longer uses it as a shield to deflect from situations she's uncomfortable in.

Which is why the way Ty Lee speaks to Ursa saddens her. She doesn't ask her why she doesn't attempt to make conversation with her like she does everyone else or why her sentences are frequently short and to the point.

She knows why.

"You still care about her, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Ty Lee says dismissively. "I'm her guard, I have to."

"I mean more than that," Ursa tries gently. "Azula is _Azula_ and I know the two of you don't have the best history but she has always had a soft spot for you and—"

"And quite honestly it's none of your business," Ty Lee snaps before taking a calming breath. "I'm sorry. I just… She has her moments, yes, and I will never let her push me around again but I have been the _only _one that has been able to 'speak Azula' since we were kids, and even back then she refused to admit what you leaving did to her, and I just—"

Ty Lee sighs before she continues, her voice filled with frustration.

"Even though she never talked about it I knew it tore her up inside. She became obsessed with being perfect for Ozai, _the bastard_," she adds under her breath, eyes fixated on Azula. "He trained—not raised but _trained_—her to be the ultimate weapon. Iroh never tried to connect with her. And you just—and no one even acknowledges that she was abused too—and—"

She stops herself from spiraling, tightly closing her eyes and silently counting to ten. Ursa could feel her getting angrier by the second and felt this was her way of keeping herself under control. Ursa turns her focus back to Azula. An uncomfortable silence falls on them.

Ty Lee turns to face the older woman as Azula begins her cool down period, stretching her legs.

"She only mentioned you twice after your banishment; the first time to say you had disappeared and the second to say that you thought of her as a monster."

Ursa is taken aback for a moment before turning her attention to Ty Lee.

"I only feared that Ozai had too much influence on her."

She hoped that Ty Lee didn't notice her deflection. Perhaps Ursa had thought Azula would grow to be a monster, completely controlled by her own father, but now all she sees is a woman who has been destroyed in the worst way possible.

She turns back to Azula and watches with a slight frown as she starts to slowly approach the archway to leave the gardens.

"I know that everything you did was to protect Zuko, and that's fair and admirable, but did you even think about her at all? Zuko said that the night that you disappeared, you woke him up to say goodbye. Don't you think you should have said goodbye to her too?"

"I did say goodbye to her," Ursa replies indignantly before deflating slightly. She notices Azula standing at the archway, watching a hawk fly over the garden wall as she waits for Ty Lee. She speaks softly, "She was just asleep when I did so."

Ty Lee stands and offers one last remark before walking away to meet her Princess.

"Then how was she supposed to know you cared?"

Ursa looks up to the warm sky, closing her eyes and choking back tears.


End file.
